ISLAMABAD – President Asif Ali Zardari has officially declared Justice Sarfaraz Dogar as the senior-most judge of the Islamabad High Court (IHC), according to a new seniority list released by the Ministry of Law and Justice on Sunday.
The decision comes in the wake of a Supreme Court verdict on June 19, which upheld the constitutional validity of transferring high court judges and left the matter of determining seniority to the president. Earlier this year, the law ministry’s transfer of three judges to the IHC sparked a legal dispute and disrupted the existing seniority order.
The latest list places Justice Dogar at the top, while the other two transferred judges — Justice Khadim Hussain Soomro from the Sindh High Court and Justice Muhammad Asif from the Balochistan High Court — have been ranked 9th and 11th, respectively. President Zardari also affirmed that the transfers of all three judges are to be considered permanent.
The controversy first erupted on February 20, when five IHC judges — Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kayani, Justice Tariq Mehmood Jahangiri, Justice Babar Sattar, Justice Sardar Ejaz Ishaq Khan, and Justice Saman Rafat Imtiaz — challenged the transfers. They argued that under the Constitution, any judge transferred to another high court must take a fresh oath, and their seniority should be counted from the date of that oath, placing them lower in the hierarchy.
The dispute intensified when the five petitioning judges refused to attend Justice Dogar’s oath-taking ceremony as acting chief justice of the IHC, signaling deep divisions within the judiciary over the interpretation of constitutional provisions related to transfers and seniority.
This high-profile row marks a rare and public clash within Pakistan’s judiciary, raising concerns about internal cohesion and constitutional clarity in matters of judicial appointments and ranking.
